Timber, dairy and chemical companies line up to sell credits to biggest emitters

One hot day this spring John Buckley scrambled up a dusty slope of a patch of deforested land in the middle of California’s Stanislaus National Forest in the Sierra Nevada, five miles west of Yosemite National Park, and surveyed the bleak landscape: 20 acres of blackened tree stumps and the shriveled remains of undergrowth. On neighboring ridges, similar brown expanses dotted the green forest canopy. “This,” he said, spreading his arms wide, “is resource management.”

Photo by Ian Umeda // Public PressFor environmentalists like John Buckley, who finds clear signals of climate change in the Sierra Nevada's rapidly receding snow line, the idea… more